Losing Illinois Cares RX means tough choices

When Diana Bott, 67, of Freeport looks at her monthly budget, she said she has to make a decision: pay for food or pay for life-saving medications. More from the two-day GateHouse Media series focused on healthcare cuts in Illinois:...

Editor's Note: This is part of a GateHouse Media series looking into Mediciad cuts in Illinois.

When Diana Bott, 67, of Freeport looks at her monthly budget, she said she has to make a decision: pay for food or pay for life-saving medications.

After losing her prescription program through the Illinois Cares Rx program, she said she is in a panic, worrying how she is going to be able to live, eat and stay healthy on a fixed income.

It was in May when Bott first received a letter from her supplemental insurance program that the cost of her medications would be going up. Not understanding what the letter meant, Bott contacted the Senior Resource Center in Freeport to get some answers. Bott learned the Illinois Cares Rx program would be coming to an end.

She learned the cost for her medications would go from nearly $100 a month to almost $500.

Bott said she can’t afford the cost difference.

Illinois CaresRx ended June 30.

“When I got the letter, I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t realize how much the program (Illinois Cares Rx) was helping me,” Bott said. “I knew I had it, but I didn’t realize how valuable it was until they quit.”

Bott worked closely with Brenda Dorsey, the information and assistance supervisor at the Senior Resource Center, who helped her get some medications from pharmaceutical companies for free.

While the three month supply has helped, Bott worries about what will happen next. She is anxious.

“We had a lot of calls from people who were looking for help, and we did what we could,” Dorsey said. “We helped sign them up for Medicaid, if they qualified, or helped with pharmaceutical compensations.

“It really has had a big effect on many of our seniors,” she added.

No Future Guarantee

Bott said she is happy to have a three month supply for her medications, and will have to notify the individual companies if something changes, but there is no guarantee.

“I went from having my medications cost me $5 and $10 to into the hundreds,” Bott said. “I never in my life thought this would happen to me — I can’t believe this.”

Bott does have supplemental insurance on top of her Medicare. She pays almost $300 for that supplemental insurance. After this expense, she must pay rent and utilities on her small apartment. She is disabled, having lost a leg to diabetes a few years ago.

Bott said the stress of all this has affected her overall health.

While she and her daughter try to can some of her food, she must rely on getting her staples from the grocery store. She said she faces the dilemma to buy groceries or buy medicine.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s a catch-22,” she said. “I am faced with such uncertainty, and I don’t know where my grocery money will come from if I have to spend all this money on medications.

“If I buy groceries and not medications, I won’t need the food, because I will be dead. It makes me mad the way things are going for seniors. We bear the brunt for politics,” she added.